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Kentucky Wildcats forward Anthony Davis catches a lob pass in front of Louisville Cardinals guard/forward Kyle Kuric during their Final Four game.

The Journal provides minute-by-minute analysis of the national semifinal game between the longtime Bluegrass State rivals. Will Snyder offers commentary on the action and CBS telecast, while Rachel Bachman and Ben Cohen are at the Superdome in New Orleans to add insight.

Somehow the fact that the University of Kentucky is playing the University of Louisville for a spot in the national championship game is the back-burner story. Instead the media is focusing solely on the bitter rivalry more than the tournament narrative.

There’s been the widely-circulated story of two senior citizens coming to blows at a dialysis center over UK and UL. And there’s Rick Pitino’s clear dislike of UK’s current head coach John Calipari. There’s the game from earlier this season where UK eked out a win despite Louisville’s Russ Smith dropping 30 points.

And there’s the fact that the Kentucky Legislature considered a law forcing the two teams to play an annual game. This is the first time in years, though, that they’ve played twice in a season. What you need to know is this is way different than UNC-Duke. This is more Hatfield and McCoy.

Enough with the rivalry talk. Let’s focus on the elimination game at hand. Rick Pitino rarely enters a tournament game as the underdog, but that’s the spot his Cardinals are in. Kentucky is seen as a quasi-NBA team led by the likes of freshman Anthony Davis (Mr. Double-Double). And there’s freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. This is likely either their next-to-last game or last game as Cats. Calipari is a recruiting machine, but usually keeps players for only a year or two tops.

Pitino, on the other hand, actually has upperclassmen at his disposal. Leading scorer Kyle Kuric is a senior, as is Chris Smtih. And guard Peyton Siva has plenty of tournament experience. It’s this big-game experience, in fact, that might be the way the Cardinals can chart a path to victory. It’s a tall order to keep pace with the Wildcats, but Pitino has a team of speedsters that also like to force opponents to play a half-court game with a methodical defense.

We all know what Kentucky will do: look for ways to score from inside and out. Pitino says his team wants to run with Cats, but slowing the game down might be a better tactic.

A spot in the championship game is on the line. (Oh, and bragging rights in the Bluegrass State, of course.)

Just about the only reason the apocalypse hasn’t yet hit the entire state of Kentucky â€“ which, the next census will show, has relocated to the great state of Louisiana this weekend â€“ is that this is an enormous mismatch and the Wildcats could win even if John Calipari were sipping Hurricanes on the bench.

After all, Kentucky has a big fella named Anthony Davis. Ever heard of him? Davis is the 6-foot-10 freakish freshman who might well be the rookie of the year, national defensive player of the year and national player of the year, all before he’s shaved his eyebrows for the first time. But the Wildcats are far from a one-man show. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist could be the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft â€“ behind Davis, of course â€“ and Terrence Jones was another preseason All-American in the frontcourt. Toss in Doron Lamb, Darius Miller and Marquis Teague, and you have the six Wildcats averaging double-figure point totals. Oh, and then there’s Kyle Wiltjer, the second-best 3-point shooter on the team. There’s a reason people consider this Kentucky team the best college group in recent memory, and that reason is not just because those people really want an invitation to Calipari’s book club.

As for Louisville, the Big East tournament champion that’s won eight in a row, the Cardinals are a defensive tour de force. In fact, their defense is the very best in the country. Their offense is not even one of the 100 best, according to the adjusted efficiency ratings of KenPom.com. Siva could wreak havoc with Teague on defense, and Gorgui Dieng might just be the post presence commanding enough to have his way with Davis, but the Cardinals are going to need the Russdiculous antics of the mercurial guard Russ Smith to even hang with the best team in the land. But then that’s what they have Rick Pitino for, too. The Cardinals use man-to-man defense, zone defense and anything else Pitino cooks up. They could throw oysters at Kentucky. Oysters! How can you not keep reading now?

Both Final Four games are regular-season rematches. What happened the last time Kentucky and Louisville played? They met in Rupp Arena on Dec. 31, when the Wildcats were ranked No. 3 and the Cardinals No. 4, though it would have taken some seriously Cardinals-colored glasses to think Louisville had a shot at the upset. But in what could be a preview of today’s game, Louisville hung around, and Kentucky needed 24 points and 19 rebounds from Kidd-Gilchrist for a 69-62 win. Davis had 18 points that afternoon, though all of them came in the second half, and he only played 27 minutes. Jones, meanwhile, went 1-of-9 for two points, while Miller, Teague and Lamb combined for 16 turnovers in the backcourt, and Smith dropped a cool 30. So, basically, Louisville followed the formula to a tee and still lost.

New Orleans has been invaded by blue people. No, that doesn’t sound right. Let’s try again: Kentucky is in the Final Four. The result in the French Quarter â€“ or anywhere in this town, really â€“ is even more impressive than an invasion of blue people. Kentucky people are everywhere and they leave no doubt that they are Kentucky people. I would estimate I’ve seen 10 times the amount of Kentucky gear on the streets the last two days than all the other Final Four schools combined. It’s just an estimate, of course. The real number is probably way higher. In fact, this afternoon, I saw an 8-year-old boy decked in Kentucky attire while also wearing Bourbon Street beads, a foam “Go Cats!” finger and a mustache on his forehead. It was the unibrow.

I just walked over to the Superdome with an older gentleman who was nursing a bottle of Bud Light. At one point we heard sirens behind us. It sounded like a firetruck. “Must be Louisville’s a– on fire!” he said and took a satisfied swig. This didn’t make much sense to me, since Louisville being on fire would be the last thing he wanted, but he was wearing a Kentucky sticker on his cheek so I thought it best not to quibble. A few seconds later, we saw the source of the siren: a cop on a motorcycle with Kentucky’s team bus right behind him. The nice man then told me he was staying at the Kentucky hotel and saw Terrence Jones last night with his mother and grandmother, who’s “just the nicest lady.” The more you know.

Calipari’s relationship with William Wesley, also known as World Wide Wes, isn’t news. But what could be news is which celebrities Wes brings to New Orleans tonight. Last year, Drake sat behind Kentucky’s bench in Houston, and Jay-Z paid his respects to Rupp Arena for the Louisville game earlier this season. Then there’s the time Jay visited Kentucky’s locker room during last year’s NCAA tournament. The photo op cost him $50,000 and inspired the first verse of a song we’ll hereby refer to as “Paris,” because this is a family live blog, and there may be unibrowed children reading. A real coup for Wes would be bringing in Jay and his lovely but not famous wife â€“ her name is, like, Beyonce, or something? â€“ and their infant named Blue Ivy Carter. It’s up to Ashley Judd from that point to officially start the process of renaming Big Blue Nation to Big Blue Ivy Nation.

Ben, sounds like this is the first time you’ve been somewhere for a UK road game. I’ll give you a quick primer: wherever the Cats are playing instantly becomes a holy site and every UK fan with the capacity to travel goes on the pilgrimage. They swarm a stadium like savvy shoppers at the Wal-Mart on Black Friday.

Jim Rome was trying to have a Dr. Phil moment with Pitino and Calipari. They brushed off rumors of their hatred as misunderstanding the Italian way. Rome said he wasn’t buying the supposed friendship. Thankfully Charles Barkley ends the debate with this succinct wisdom: “Who cares if they don’t like each other? They’re coaches. They don’t need to be friends.”

Speaking of celebrities, Rachel and I went to a French Quarter bar last night. There were some other famous people there, too. One was the actor Jason Sudeikis, a Jayhawks diehard who has been known to watch games at the Kansas bar Village Pourhouse in New York, replete with a blue KU hat. Right behind us sat Thomas Lennon, better known as Lt. Dangle from “Reno 911,” who’s shooting a movie down here this month. Lennon, a Chicago native, says he stopped caring about basketball when Michael Jordan retired (for the second time).

We’re still waiting for Rick Pitino to arrive on the court. I think I know the holdup. Jason Gay just walked in wearing a resplendent white suit. Which can only mean one thing: wardrobe change for Rick! Excuse me for a moment while I snag some of the fried chicken Jason’s distributing in the Kentucky sections.

Speaking of celebrities, Jay-Z is in the house. He’s standing in the first row behind the media rows behind the Kentucky bench. He’s wearing a jeans jacket and a gold watch that looks like it cost more than every car I’ve ever owned.

My mother’s family is from Kentucky and a quick survey shows that the they’re split about 50-50 as to who they prefer. During the 1992 game (you know, THE GAME) when Laettner made THE SHOT, my mother, a gal from Kentucky, was actually pulling for Duke to win. How did this happen? She felt bad for our neighbor who was a diehard Duke fan. Unfortunately that lapse in loyalty for her home team meant years of the silent treatment from our extended family. Well, from the UK fans. The Louisville fans in the family were quite happy about her choice.

Quick (perhaps obvious) question: Is the court that rough shade of green because Tulane is technically the host school for the Final Four? Or is the NCAA trying to save money and reusing the court from a St. Patrick’s Day charity game?

The other reason I’m so late to the party here is that I went blind for about 15 minutes when I got my first glimpse at Louisville’s unis. I’m less blind now, but still partly blind. I was so blind that I thought I walked into Shaquille O’Neal. Wait! That was Shaquille O’Neal.

There’s a fair amount of red in the stands, which surprised me thinking that so many UL fans traveled. And then I remembered that red is OSU’s color, too. So combined they’re still only about half of the Big Blue presence.

It should be noted, as the noise is already deafening in here before tipoff, that the 74,400 capacity of the Superdome for this game is the largest ever for a Final Four. It might be even more than that with seats added this week, an NCAA official just told me.

Can we talked about the raised courts? Because they’re the worst. Pitino and Calipari are standing on the court while their entire teams and assistants are on chairs literally a few feet below them. I mean, I know these coaches are already on a pedestal, but sheesh.

As someone from Minnesota, home of another raised court, let me enter a word in their defense. They’re tricky, true, and they require those squat stools that look like the seating arrangement at a fourth-graders’ camp-out. But they make for better viewing, and if you fall off the edge diving for a loose ball, hey, that’s what splints are for.

Charles Barkley, who is now my basketball sage, said the only way Louisville could stay in this game is if they slowed it down. He’s right. And 2.5 minutes in and the Cardinals are trying to run sprints with the Cats.

Hey, who said Louisville’s best shot was pressuring Teague and turning it into silly turnovers? Four points and an assist already for the point guard. Kentucky’s already in control of this game and Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist and Jones aren’t even on the scoreboard.

Order is momentarily restored as Teague makes a jump shot. But then it gets sloppy as Behanan missed a dunk (hard clank off the iron) but Kuric gets the board and makes a sweet layup as he’s fouled by Kidd-Gilchrist. And we’re off to a TV timeout. Free throw ensuing.

I’m with Clark! Louisville’s best shot is turning this into an up-tempo, frenetic game with lots of possessions so the Cardinals can make offense out of their defense and turn the Cats over on the press. The problem is the Cats are also the best team in the country.

Louisville’s still down, but the Cardinals are at least hanging around with this vicious little matchup zone. Kentucky’s broken it a few times by slithering into the lane, but the Wildcats have also resorted to jump shots. I’m not a coach, scout or Jay-Z, but even I know that’s not the best strategy when you have that guy named Anthony Davis.

Dieng scores his first of the game. And that’s after he was able to get Anthony Davis whistled for an offensive foul. Good set for the Louisville big man. Too bad he let’s Wiltjer by him in the lane and UK is back up by 10.

I just realized that Kentucky is one win away from tying the single-season record for NCAA basketball wins — and, of course, two from breaking it. Like I’ve been saying all month long, if the Wildcats win, they will go down as one of the greatest college hoops teams of all time even though most of them will have spent a few months on campus.

One of the luxuries of being Calipari — besides all that hair — is the ability to bench Kidd-Gilchrist with two fouls even in a Final Four game. Meanwhile Siva has two fouls and sticks in the game for a few minutes, pretty much because he has to. To be fair, though, Pitino’s got great hair, too.

Davis is on a roll with eight, but Louisville is chipping away at the lead. Especially after Lamb turns it over at halfcourt and Russ Smith pounces for the transition two. Calipari wants a timeout and Cats’ fans want Kidd-Gilchrist back.

Calipari just called a timeout, walked onto the floor and started screeching at Doron Lamb after Russ Smith picked his pocket in the halfcourt. Say what you will about Calipari, but he’s truly just molding young men’s minds.

The announcers are talking about well-poised Louisville is to take this one. But they’ve been behind since the 19:00 mark and when they tried to make a run, it quickly backfired. Louisville has been strong on the board, outrebounding the Cats 21-15. If they want to win, though, they need to make more shots. They’re only making 38% to UK’s 60%.

Seth Davis makes a good point. Well, two good points. And they are that Louisville had nine turnovers in the half and most were unforced. They need to tighten up if they want to win. The other point is that Kidd-Gilchrist dominated the game in December and was off to a fast start in this one. If he can control the fouls in the second half, he could be the deciding factor.

Reader D.W. writes to us and Ashley Judd (?) on Twitter: “LOUISVILLE not being beaten, they’re beating themselves. If not for missed shots, this game would be close.”

My response: Uh, couldn’t they be missing so many shots because UK is playing good defense? And isn’t UK making so many shots because they’re finding ways through the zone? I don’t see how Louisville is beating themselves. It’s a close game but Kentucky is clearly playing better for now.

Louisville’s press on the inbounds forces UK to take a timeout. The Cardinals are energized but not quite on fire yet. Smokey the Bear says the threat of fire is moderate. And remember, only you can’t prevent them. You and UK’s defense.

But instead Louisville turns it over. Well, the silver lining is that Kidd-Gilchrist is whistled for his third for a charge. UK fans will be annoyed because it really looked like a block on the replay.

I’m also sitting in front of a few former Louisville players. One of them just yelled, “Keep playing, Russ, you gotta play!” I wonder how much it would take for them to scream encouragement at me during this live blog.

Calipari is going to rip his hair out after Louisville just had four chances on the offensive glass. It started when Dieng missed a dunk (again). Speaking of which, I think the Cardinals have missed a record number of open dunks tonight.

A few things about Kentucky that don’t get discussed much in all the one-and-done tut-tutting: The Wildcats shoot a respectable 73% from the line. And the players don’t whine or yammer, something young players sometimes (or often) do. I was talking to Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart yesterday, and he said he’s never seen Anthony Davis fuss about anything. That’s remarkable for a big man who gets his fair share of elbows to the rib.

This game is getting ugly, which, according to Kellog, is the way Louisville wants it. I think what Louisville wants more is their incredible offensive rebounding. First it’s Dieng on a follow dunk (yes, he made one) and then Blackshear with a Superman follow. It’s a four-point game and Calipari wants to talk about it.

Dieng has the wingspan of a pterodactyl as he stops a lob attempt by Kentucky. But on the next possession Davis gets around him and makes the dunk. If you’re betting on threes tonight, tear up that ticket. This game is all hanging from the rim.

Miller is called for a shooting foul on Behanan. Official timeout first. Louisville is staying in this, but they haven’t really slowed down Kentucky’s shooting. The Cats are still shooting 57 percent. What’s keeping Louisville in this one is insane rebounding. The difference is 44 to 21.

Four fouls on Blackshear after he knocks down Kidd-Gilchrist. That’s Louisville’s seventh team foul, which could be a big factor going down the stretch. Well, only if UK makes its free throws. MKG misses both.

So far this result is undermining conventional wisdom (including mine) going into tonight that the second game would be the better matchup. It’s hard to beat this one for tense jaws and clenched fists.

The best matchup tonight is Jay-Z vs. the Superdome DJ. In the last two timeouts, he’s played two songs that feature Jay and skipped him both times. World Wide Wes just sent his own replacement upstairs.

Blackshear gets open for three but hits off the iron. And then its a back-and-forth of misses and swinging rebounds until…Miller with the clutch three! Kentucky goes up seven and there’s a timeout by Louisville.

Miller heads to the line for two shots after being fouled by Kuric (his third). Louisville in clutch possessions keeps missing or turning it over. They’re still in it but not if they cough it up down the line.

Word on the TV is that Kidd-Gilchrist is out with a quad injury. No worry for Cats fans as Miller steps it up and pulls down a big rebound. It’s a missed shot for UK but Davis swats a Russ Smith shot out and we’re off to the final TV timeout.

In the first half the announcers kept saying that Louisville was in just the right position to win this one. They’re still in that same position with just over three and a half minutes left. Now’s the time to make a run, you know, because the game is almost over.

That was a ride. I don’t think there have been that many dunks in a game outside of a Harlem Globetrotter spectacle. Unfortunately for Louisville, they missed a fair number of those dunks, which kept them just out of reach of the always-dominant Wildcats. If anything tonight, Kentucky proved its depth. After Kidd-Gilchrist got into early foul trouble, Lamb and Miller stepped it up. And then in the second half when Lamb went cold, Kidd-Gilchrist was on. Oh, and Anthony Davis is just always awesome. He led everyone with everything. He had 18 points and 14 boards.

Louisville stayed in this game because of rebounding. They led 53-37 on the boards. But it didn’t make up for shooting 35% from the floor. This was an exciting game, but in the end, you could see the difference in skill between the Wildcats and Cardinals. Louisville just didn’t have the clutch plays in them down the stretch. Still, a great one to watch. I’ll toast it with my hurricane. Speaking of which, I hear the blender.

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